iPhone 4S more satisfying to users than iPhone 4

If the iPhone 4S was a disappointment to the technorati, it's not to the millions who have already bought one. In fact, according to a new ChangeWave survey, the 4S is a bigger hit with owners than the iPhone 4 was.

If the iPhone 4S was a disappointment to the technorati, it's not to the millions who have already bought one. In fact, according to a new ChangeWave survey, the 4S is a bigger hit with owners than the iPhone 4 was.

Seventy-seven percent of 215 iPhone 4S users said they were "very satisfied" with the new phone; just 2% were "unsatisfied" with it, according to results of an early November survey by ChangeWave, a division of The 451 Group.

In a July 2010 survey, 72% of iPhone 4 users reported they were "very satisfied" with the then-new iPhone model.

While users are high on the 4S, nearly 4 out of 10 users say the phone's battery life is "too short." Still, only 8% say this is a "very big problem."

With the 4S model, Apple introduced a sophisticated "voice assistant," Siri, which lets a user control a wide range of tasks and functions with natural language spoken commands or questions (Siri has also sparked a host of fun videos, like this). Apple's bet on Siri has paid off: ChangeWave found that it is the best-liked feature of the new phone.

The top two dislikes, by far, were the new phone's battery life and its lack of 4G or LTE cellular support. More than one-third, 38%, of these owners said the 4S battery life is too short; just less than one-third, 30%, disliked the absence of 4G.

ChangeWave asked the sample if they had experienced shorter battery life on the new phone. "Two-in-five owners said they had experienced reduced battery life with their iPhone 4S (40%). But when asked how much of a problem this issue was for them, only 8% of all owners said it was a Very Big Problem while 20% said it was Somewhat of a Problem," according to the report.

Apple has released an iOS 5 update aimed at improving battery performance for the phone.

Dropped calls on the 4S are much fewer than for the iPhone 4. In July 2010, the sample of iPhone 4 owners reported on average a dropped call rate of 5.2%. By contrast, iPhone 4S users report a 2.5% rate.

The new survey also confirmed the continuing disparity between AT&T and Verizon of dropped calls: 4S users on AT&T reported a dropped call rate of 4.1%; on Verizon, 4S users reported a rate of 1.3%.